Novato-area 'solar farm' heads for county panel

Veteran Green Point Nursery owner Jim Balestreri says critics of the plan for a "solar farm" at his 20-acre Olive Avenue business are waging a turf war for his property.

Balestreri, whose quest for a solar operation on the nursery began six years ago, is ready for the battle when county planners consider approval of the project later this month.

At issue are plans for a 664-kilowatt photovoltaic array rising up to 6 feet above grade on an acre of the nursery at the corner of Atherton and Olive avenues. It would consist of a series of 25- by 100-foot nonreflective panels staggered in 16 rows varying in length up to 800 feet, and screened in part by a 5-foot fence, trees and nursery stock.

The county Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the plan May 28, and neighbors are expected to weigh in with a variety of concerns about a project that one veteran observer contends could have far-reaching implications.

While some are concerned about glare, visual, wildlife and other aspects of the project, Hank Barner, a former county planning commissioner who once served as president of the Black Point Improvement Club, said the issue extends far beyond the neighborhood.

The improvement club recently voted to oppose the project after listening to concerns that "really are a manifestation of zoning," Barner said, noting that the nursery site is in an agricultural zone.

Approving a large solar operation at the site sets up a "slippery slope" that could set a precedent and "put in jeopardy our agricultural land in the county," Barner said. "On the surface it sounds pretty reasonable," he said of the Olive Avenue solar plan. "But it could have unintended consequences."

Balestreri agrees the project may have consequences for agricultural land — and good ones at that.

"If there's vacant farm land, there's a reason for it," he said. "People have to take a second look at how we use that land," the 75-year-old added. "Everybody wants open space, but who's going to pay for it? That's the key."

He noted that his $1.7 million project was pared back from a larger, $3 million proposal he pitched last year, when representatives of the Marin Audubon Society and Marin Conservation League expressed concerns about birds, noting marshland owned by the society is next door. Since then, the project has been cut 40 percent, the height of the solar panels lowered almost 3 feet, and their location shifted 100 feet from the marsh to an upland area.

"We met with them early on and told them it was too much," said Barbara Salzman, head of Marin Audubon, adding she had not reviewed the latest plan.

Balestreri said worries that solar panels would make ducks nervous, disrupt nesting marsh birds or foraging wildlife are all wet, the result of "overzealous" advocacy. "There's no biological study saying solar affects bird habitat," he declared. "It's a turf war, what we have going on here."

County planner Lorene Jackson, who headed a staff review of the proposal, noted the county supports alternative energy — and that a solar farm of similar size at the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District has worked well with few problems. A biological assessment of the Olive Avenue plan indicated no significant impact on resources, she added.

In an analysis issued Friday, the county planning staff recommended approval of the project.